Fall planting question

[newforest]

so for seedlings destined for a Fall plant, do they have a unique sowing date? as compared to seedlings destined for the next spring.

I would think depending on sowing strategy, seedlings might have to be pulled from trays _before_ they put on their fall root growth? or else there might be a risk they become difficult to extract?

what I'm getting at is this - can seedlings supposed to be planted in the fall just be frozen for use the next spring instead?


I finally have a grower in my state growing Conifer plugs at reasonable prices. I am trying to help him as much as I can; PRT will be here soon and will probably crush him. But until then ... I really hate planting trees for no purpose at all other than to use seedlings, as on my current job. And I am going to suggest this grower should just freeze un-used Fall seedlings, rather than dump them on to sites that shouldn't be planted in the first place.

[Scooter]

Salbrecher, my apologies. Just now, the board somehow accidentally had some sort of technical glitch. I posted a reply to your previous post (which is no longer visible), but it ended up merging my edits with your post. I tried to reverse it, and it deleted your original post entirely.

Sorry about that. I don't know seem to be able to recover the reply that you made to Newforest.

[Scooter]

Here's what I intended to reply, following your original comment:

doesn't want to pay the cold storage cost to hold them over the winter?

That's often one of the primary concerns. The cost to pay for over-winter storage in a proper facility is not insignificant. I've known of foresters who probably should have done just that with certain stock, but balked at the cost due to their budget limitations, and instead did something to get the trees planted right away (even though that might not have been the best decision for the stock in question).

[bhappy]

If they are just getting pulled, bundled and put into cold storage until the Spring. They will be fine. Someone can correct me on the following point if I am wrong...the only time where there would be concern is if the trees have flushed and not hardened off yet. If this were the case they might die when put into cold storage, or get stunted.

Most nurseries grow their seedlings for 8-12mths. When they put Spring trees into cold storage they start sowing for their hot lift trees. I think the cost goes up when you get into 2+ year trees, because they start needing more space, and taking up space that could otherwise be used for a second run of trees.